Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

A sixth man next week?

Remember all the controversy back in June about that six-man rotation that never came to fruition? Well, the Red Sox might finally get a six-man rotation next week, for one turn around.

With Tim Wakefield tentatively scheduled to start Monday in Kansas City, the Red Sox will simply slide everyone else back a day. Look for Byrd to pitch Tuesday, followed by Beckett, Buchholz, Lester and Dice-K.

The Red Sox don’t have another day off for the rest of the season, so this will be an opportunity for Terry Francona to get some breathers for a staff that has worked hard over the course of a long season.

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Peter Abram has been a Yankee beat writer for the local paper Jounal News for 10 years. If the opportunity knocks, I don’t blame him to jump to the Bawston Globe. Pete’s a Patriots fan I know for sure.

007 – that should not have been a wild pitch…… I would have ruled it a passed ball for sure.

I hate to say it, but Tek is really doing more harm than good at this point. He can’t throw any more, although a big part of that is the pitching staff. He can’t hit his hat size, and now his defense is really starting to suffer. Sox need to go into the post season thinking Martinez behind the plate with Youk and Lowell in the lineup. Anything else is crazy.

That 1-0 pitch Beckett threw to Abreu was almost the exact same pitch Green got last night, except maybe a little lower, and it was called a strike. Umpires have a tough time with the lower end of the strike zone because they can’t really judge the height of the pitch. It’s a guess at best which is why there’s no consistency.

007 – Ortiz has only guessed right 23 times in 500 at bats. Not a very good percentage. I guess that makes him a bad guesser. He still can’t catch up with anything over 90 mph unless he guesses speed and location, and that doesn’t happen often. He misses a lot of pitches right down the middle by very average pitchers.

I can’t believe the decline in Varitek’s play either — it shows in his post game comments, he never was a very outspoken, quiet in his responses, but he doesn’t seem to have the confidence he once did when he speaks, even thought he was quiet. Its hard for most of us to imagine how competitive and therefore fragile the confidence of these players is — even Papi hasn’t recovered (to my sense) — once the confidence is broken in these guys — it seems very difficult for them to get it back — and then when their team makes a move that seems to indicate they fear you might not be able to cut it — that often sinks many a player for good (it seems to me).

The acquisition of V-Mart (so far seeming to be good move without question) has the one cost (I think) of pushing Varitek over the edge, knowing the team felt they had to find a solution for his lack of offsense, sunk him – he has performed noticeably poorer since that time. Call it the 2nd half of the season, or the arrival or your rival, or whatever — we will never know for sure — but now no more home run power, no hits — and now two crucial pass balls costing us two leads in two nights, — doesn’t sound like the Varitek we know. He needs to play for 100% for the team now, and try not to think too much about himself and where he was and where he will be.

dgn: I think Tek’s confidence was pretty much gone before the arrival of Martinez. He was on the downhill slide when Martinez got here. However, I never thought it would affect his catching the way it has. I just think he’s tired and maybe he should think about hanging them up after this year, although I don’t think he will. The guy who is really clueless is Ortiz. Yeah, I know he’s hit some home runs and a couple of them have been big. But he’s a pure DH who is being benched frequently and is not hitting 6th or 7th a lot of the time he’s playing. I think Tito has lost confidence in him, and he knows it.

I don’t think Martinez’s arrival has anything to do with Varitek’s decline. Varitek’s play has been way below sub-par for a season or more now. Varitek being a competitor would embrace the arrival of Martinez, it shouldn’t have a negative effect. When the season is over, Varitek has a player option of 3 million and the Red Sox have a team option of 5 million. If the Red Sox picked up the team option…I would want them drug tested!!

I agree with you 100%! Beckett and Lackey—game 1 in Anaheim…Lester and Saunders in game 2 in the land of Disney. Texas has had a very surprising season but they’ll have nothing to show for it at the end of the year. Also a great match-up in game 1 in the other series. Verlander against the hefty lefty Sabathia.

sigh….ive been holdin back on bashin tito….so i wont do too much…anyone who knows baseball doesnt need the obvious pointed out….i know weve been winnin…true….but even in the wins there were very questionable moves…sigh…why wagner…whos pitched less than 10 innings….why not yuke?….why not hit for papi….why ,,,why..o well…tomorrow is another day…nice game by beckett though…judge

Depressing! Even if Big Papi was actually making contact and was put out would be better than three SO’s! The stats say that Beckett was charged with a WP! I guess that lets Varitek off the hook tonight but he probably did let it get by him.

i still would like tek to back up vmart next yr…TB will be lookin for a catcher next yr….ugh…..took should only play against lefties or just learn to bat just rt handed….or retire…which i cant see….have a good day all….oh yeah …someone pls send tito a copy of ingamemanagement 101….judge

We have been too critical of Tek for last night’s game. 3 runs ain’t enough to beat the LAA lineup. On the other hand, if Tek didn’t let the “wild” pitch get passs him, the Sox would still have 1 run lead. We’d see Pap instead of Wag in the 9th.
Uncle Tito is Uncle Tito, one one can change his managerial style or ability. Assuming Youk is unavailable, I would have Rocco to pinch pitch for Big Papi, not for JD. I would have JD hit even a LHP is on the mound.
Soscicsa micromanaged the the Angels to losses and Uncle (mis)managed the Sox to wins. Uncle’s in game moves a lot of times leave one head scratching “What the %^& is he doing? And yet the moves sometimes work. Go figure.

007chow I agree 100%, that Baldelli should pinch-hit for Ortiz. I was thinking same thing. Also after JD Drew walked he should have pinch-hit for Varitek then. Maybe Reddick, but someone with a faster bat.
Tito should be using Varitek like he was a National League pitcher. As the game gets on to later innings pinch-hit for him.
His average is worse than MANY National League pitchers after the All-Star break.
This pennant race is not over yet, and even if you clinch do you want him to bat, when 1 and done series is on the line?
Only thing about passed ball is he called a curve, chances of this pitch going down into the ground is much higher, should have been ready for this. Not too disappointed in this. Could have happened to any catcher.

rooster7: I would have Reddick pinch run for JD and Kotchman pinch hit for Tek. You are more optimistic than I am about this pennant race. If the loss column cut down to 3 before the next Yankees series, you never know. The tie in the standing goes to the Red Sox.
After last night’s loss, I think it is realistically ovah. But If the Sox can sweep the next two series against the Oreos and KC (not too much to ask) and the Yanks lose 2 out of 3 againt the Seattle and Angels (not unlikely). So we have a pennant race?

All electromagnetic radiations travel at speed of light. The formular I remember is that speed of light equals frequency times wavelength.
According to Einstein because as an object nears to the speed of light, its mass becomes infinitely larger, so there is not enough power in the universe to push it past the light barrier. We have broken the sound barrier many decades ago. To break light barrier, not in my or your life time.

If we’re goin ta’ get rid of Tito, why not bring back Grady Little…Now that would get a lot of jaws yammerin!!! All the guy does this year is persevere through the shutdown of a bunch of starting pitchers and bats, and he still has them on the verge of the play-offs, in solid position to make a strong run. I tell you, the man is the Rodney Dangerfield of baseball managing….I don’t get no respect….I don’t get no respect!

As I said earlier, he’s done at least as good a job as both Girardi and Scioscia. They’ll receive strong consideration for MoY, and Tito will be an afterthought…I don’t get no respect….

I liked the idea of playing Janis Joplin’s Cry Baby whenever John Lackey pitches in Fenway in the post-season, but I also think, when the Angels are in town, they should change the lyrics of “Sweet Caroline” to “Sweet Angels’ Whine”. What a bunch of crybabies! Fuentes is crying because the Sox pack the house every night they are home, and most nights they are on the road. UNBELIEVABLE!!!! The Oreos are down 2-13 to the Sox this season, and I suspect their FO, if asked what they’d like to change for next season, would ask for more home games vs. the Sox. I will remind you that my daughter and I were in Camden Yards for VMart’s first game with the Sox, and the standing O’s for a visiting player were astounding!!!

If the unhappiness is with RSN for so solidly supporting their beloved team, then CRY BABY!!!! GO SOX…let’s sweep the Oreos one more time, and put the SOX in prime position to close out their play off participation, so Tito the bungler can give the Starting Rotation some time off to ready themselves for the post-season.

I mean, what a terrible job he has done…

First, Dice-K shows he’s worth puppy droppings as a pitcher

Then, Big Papi looks like Little Poopy at the plate

Then, Youk gets injured and slows down in May and June from a torrid start in April and May

Then, JayBay shows he’s human in June and July

Then, after an All-Star start, Wake has injuries that overtake him

Then, Brad Penny proves that he is still a notoriously bad second half pitcher

Then, John Smoltz demonstrates that he gave his best for the Braves

Then, the Sox continue to slip in July, to the point where they lose 4 in a row in July to the Yanks,

Then, Josh B becomes human again in the second half

Yet, still and all, the Sox are going to make the play-offs for the fifth of six years Tito has managed him

Let’s fire his A$&. All his teams do is win more than their talent suggests they should.

Hi All! Youk will be available for tonight’s game!! YAY!!! I’ll miss the first part of the game – yes, have to play mom first! lol! Catch you all later! It is getting really dark here – hmmm wonder if it is going to be more then showers?

Einstein did indeed release his paper that attributes E=mc2 during the magical year of 1905 – the same year that he also release his paper on Special Relativity.

Light is a form of electromagnetic radiation that we can formulate with our eyes. It is a very thin sliver of the spectrum and all radiation travels at the same speed which is c = 300000000 m/s. Einstein postulated due to Special Relativity that as you approach the speed of light you gain infinite mass and you would shrink your volume to nothingness – therefore you can never reach the speed of light (at least in this universe)

As far as the rest of the season?

Boston has 17 games remaining
10 road games
7 home games

If they play to their current winning percentages at home and on the road they should go

Road: 4-6
Home: 5-2
Total: 9-8

Record: 95-67

Texas has 17 games. They would have to go 15-2 to match the Red Sox’s 9-8 record. The Sox also play most of their games against sub .500 teams

Andrew,
I’m going to have to make these questions harder! (LOL). Well done and exactly right. You have to have infinite mass which breaks the equation to get to the speed of light so everything is measured against that.
I often wonder if we discover what dark energy is, what it will mean for science. I mean an energy that does not give off waves of electromagnetism and that means an entirely new form of energy. Rock on!
Dave…
As far as e=mc2 I believe that it was 1905 just pulling out the gray hairs of my old physics class. I believe that was the same year Einstein solved the black body, photoelectric effect problem that failed in classical physics.

As far as last nights game is concerned I feel that Tek should have at least stopped that pitch. That’s two nights in a row. The first night we came back. Last night we lost. Tito has to do something with Tek and Papi. They really do not belong in that lineup. Right now we have to out and win. GO SOX!!!. LET’S GET SOME RUNS!!!

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